Company: Walkers law firm
Agency: Levick Strategic Communications
Timeframe: Ongoing
Offshore law firms have not engaged in a lot of media outreach historically, so - although lawyers are usually not known for having particularly small egos - it took some fancy
footwork to persuade one such firm to talk about what it does.
In 2004, the Walkers law firm, based in the Cayman Islands, launched its first programmatic public relations campaign with four simple objectives:
- To raise its profile in all its target markets;
- To outdistance its direct competitors in brand name recognition;
- To maximize interest in ongoing office openings and practice area expansions; and
- To improve general perceptions of offshore finance in global economic markets.
The target audience was corporate executives and attorney referral sources in the U.S. (mainly New York), Hong Kong, London and the Middle East. For a firm focused like Walkers
on high-end hedge fund and private equity markets, hitting these elevated but far-flung targets was essential.
Since October 2005, Walkers lawyers have appeared in more than 360 separate news stories around the world. These placements include feature stories in key trade publications
such as Hedge Funds Review and Hedgeweek as well as coverage in more mainstream financial media such as Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones.
But just how did they do it, and what hurdles did the PR team face in achieving these results? Walkers has 116 lawyers in six offices, with new openings in Dubai and the British
island of Jersey in the last 13 months. Many law firms 10 times this size have not reached this volume of substantive media coverage.
First Hurdle
Because this form of marketing was so new to the firm, Walkers hired Levick Strategic Communications, a specialist in the legal space, among other areas. Melissa Arnoff, vice
president of Levick, notes that the newness of the effort was the first challenge that the company faced.
"It took some convincing to get the partners to talk about the idea of offshore," she say. "The challenge was that it was an offshore law firm, and not many of them had been
doing media outreach. It was new for the industry as well as for that firm, and we had to get past the initial hurdle of convincing the partners that doing this was a good
idea."
Arnoff set out to achieve buy-in from the partners in the firm, and media train the spokespeople who would participate in the program. Some partners were a little reluctant to
court the limelight.
Creating The Image
"If you say 'Cayman,' most people's stereotype is the movie The Firm," she says. "You picture people coming in with suitcases full of money. Some of the Walkers'
partners come from the Cayman Islands, and they take that personally - as anyone would." In courting a new image, they team had to be sensitive to the effects of an existing
one.
Choosing topics to promote to the media was another challenge. Chronicling specific successes of the firm might have seemed a natural approach to publicizing Walkers, but
attorneys are often prohibited from talking about clients and their cases by client/attorney privilege restrictions. Besides, those stories would not have held immediate appeal
for the relevant media.
But the business and financial media are always on the lookout for the larger business and legal issues that the firm's experience reflects. Walkers' specific industry focus on
hedge funds, Islamic finance, private equity funds, and the Asian investment market presented almost limitless opportunities.
"The news is the industry they are in, not the firm," says Arnoff. "We got them to talk about the trends, and what's going on in emerging markets."
The media was also bound to be keenly interested in Cayman as a business center, so Walkers lawyers would talk and publish stories about Cayman itself. Cayman news would be
Walkers news. Not only did this strategy increase the number of media hits, it further associated the law firm with Cayman itself. As Walkers added offices in other jurisdictions
such as Dubai and Jersey, and expanded its services in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and London, this model was used again with much success.
The campaign began by promoting stories to trade publications and local newspapers, to help the partners get their feet wet in the practice of giving interviews, and to create
buzz among some of their most viable business partners.
"If you think about how deals happen, one reason why Cayman is great for hedge funds is it's a one-stop shop with law firms, banks - everyone you need," says Arnoff. "People
might not think a Cayman paper is important, but the people who are important to the deals live there." Their best potential clients would be reading the local news.
Building Knowledge
Levick also began sending the partners of the firm e-newsletters compiled by the communications company's interns aggregating news stories that were relevant to their areas of
practice. The partners now use the stories contained in these newsletters to prepare for meetings and interviews, and simply to stay more tuned in to their markets. They forward
them to other partners, post them on the firm's Web site, and use them to find new business partners.
"It helps continue to position them as the go-to guys in the field," says Arnoff.
Media training for the firm's key spokespersons proved crucial. Reporter meetings were also critical to developing rapport with key journalists in New York, London, Dubai and
Hong Kong. Once the key identifications were created - of Walkers with investment funds, and of Walkers with key finanical jurisdictions - then it became realistic to expect
reporters to be more receptive to firm-related news. That's exactly what happened. For example, by tying new hires in the firm's BVI office to changes in the types of deals being
done in the BVI, the firm generated coverage including three feature stories.
In addition, reporters began contacting Walkers looking for interviews. A former reporter for The Financial Times who was writing a book was eager to have input from one
of the partners. Another journalist from American Lawyer also called on the firm for comments for a story he was writing. In at least one case, a partner was able to
surprise a seasoned reporter in finance with new information.
The media interest drove Walkers' marketing efforts. In turn, those efforts were further supported in the media. These "collaterals" included catchy pictorial symbols: blue
iguana stuffed animals were used as holiday fund raisers for local charities and as giveaways at key events to reinforce Walkers' Cayman connection. This year, the firm will be
passing out green lizards toys to highlight the new Jersey office (that's the island in the English Channel, not the state next to New York). Community efforts, including
children's arts programs in Cayman and BVI, were likewise well received in the media.
The annual report and holiday cards humanize the firm in ways that have further differentiated Walkers from its competitors. Last year's "card" came with photos of various
employees, not just partners, along with holiday recipes from the locales where they work.
Perhaps the most important ancillary benefit of the media campaign is the client advisories spun from the firm's press releases. In fact, client communications have increased
from less than five advisories per year to an unprecedent 23 advisories in 2006.
Walkers really took the PR advice to heart: It leveraged all media successes while keeping an eye on the real target audiences - its clients and prospects.
Walkers' partners now do regular interviews with international media including Dow Jones, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today and The
Lawyer. Two years ago, Walkers had no contacts at any of these media and received minimal press coverage. More and more reporters are calling Walkers directly these days. And
meanwhile, Walkers' clients are commenting on the firm's media placements.
Contact:
Melissa Arnoff, 202.973.1336, [email protected]
Media Coverage Statistics
The following chart compares the media coverage generated between October 2005 and October 2006 by Walkers and its major competitors, the other three major
global offshore law firms. Media coverage figures for all four firms are based on daily Web search results.
| International Business Coverage | Community Coverage | Total Press Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor #1 |
95
|
2
|
97
|
| Competitor #2 |
78
|
27
|
105
|
| Competitor #3 |
66
|
19
|
85
|
| Walkers |
306
|
58
|
364
|
Keys To Success
The Walkers campaign represented several PR best practices.
- First was getting buy-in from key partners at the firm. Levick achieved this through face-to-face meetings with partners, by plying the marketing director with gifts, and
by getting a couple of the partners involved so others would be jealous - Levick vice president Melissa Arnoff says this only half in jest. "You need the commitment to marketing,
you have to get them to take some time from billable hours to give to this, because it's important. Walkers' partners have been phenomenal about this."
- The second key was teaching the partners that they are not the news, the industry is the news. "We had to get the partners and spokespeople to think about trends," says
Arnoff. "Get them to tell a story, not just talk about the nuts and bolts of how the financial structure goes together. People are interested in how you use that structure,
whether it's for an airline or a manufacturing company, why it's better than what was used previously, and talking about the impact to the broader market and everyday people.
Walkers has gotten really good at media interviews with facts plus analysis."
- Another factor was persuading the attorneys that they didn't have to be afraid to make predictions. "Reporters don't want to write about what happened last week. What might
happen next month is more interesting," Arnoff notes. Getting lawyers to take that leap of faith was difficult, but it was crucial to creating stories the market would want to
read and the relevant media would want to run.
- As an offshore law fund specializing in hedge funds and finance, Walkers was in a position to be an advocate for its industry. The partners had to be trained to educate people
about how things work. When doing a media tour in NY with a partner, Arnoff and the partner met with a reporter from financial publication who was very experienced. But the
partner, who is one of Levick's rock stars at the firm now, was able to surprise the reporter with a depth of knowledge in an area the journalist had not covered before.
- Finally, says Arnoff, it's important to leverage other people's news. She cites such emerging markets as China and Dubai, and how hungry the media and worlds of business and
finance are for information about them. Levick develops press releases and pitches stories talking about Walkers' role in those areas and connecting the dots. By opening these
markets to the rest of the world and involving Walkers in the stories, the program takes global news and makes it local, while taking local news and making it global.
How You Know It's Working
Levick identified four things that made the PR firm realize that they were doing something right in the Walkers campaign:
1. "Partners at Walkers were telling us their clients were noticing more articles about Walkers," says Melissa Arnoff, Levick's vice president. "Getting positive feedback from
their own clients, who were seeing them in The Finanical Times and Wall Street Journal, was great validation."
2. Walkers' offices are growing, the firm has more business and the company is hiring new staff. While not strictly a measurement Levick can use for a communications campaign,
Arnoff nevertheless likes to take some credit. "We think we played a role in that with the campaign," Arnoff says proudly.
3. Reporters are calling Walkers now. While Levick is still pitching, the firm is getting more inbound calls. One reporter who worked for a number of years at the Financial
Times was writing a book, and he asked Walkers to contribute a chapter on Cayman hedge funds. American Lawyer also called the partners for information regarding an
article it was doing.
4. The partners seem happier to do this than they were two years ago, when Levick first began working with them. They are eager to be part of the program, and even offer their
own ideas for press releases and topics they would like to talk to the media about. "That says a lot about the success of the program," says Arnoff.